Rahm Emanuel Breaks Down in Tears After Watching Footage of His Father at Anti-Nazi Protest

Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and White House chief of staff, broke down in tears after being shown footage of himself and his late father protesting a Nazi rally on the latest edition of The Fifth Column podcast.

After hosts Michael Moynihan and Matt Welch rolled the tape of a young, shirtless Emanuel saying, “Of course he’s talking. Can you please get out of here?” to the camera back in 1978, the prospective 2028 presidential candidate asked, “Do you know what that is?”

“Marquette Park!” exclaimed Moynihan.

“You know what that’s from?” continued Emanuel, “The guy in the beard is my dad, who’s no longer alive.”

“Oh, wait, wait. Can we put that back? That is your dad? That’s your father!” followed up Moynihan.

“So here’s the story. I’ll give you this. This is actually my firs-, I’ve not seen this ever,” marveled Emanuel, who proceeded to show his interlocutors that he was wearing the same bar mitzvah necklace he was in the clip.

“So,” he began before choking up, “So… the Nazis are banned from Skokie — from marching. I said-, and then they get a permit… I had never seen my dad. They get a permit to go to Marquette Park. And I said to my father, ‘Just just because they’re not next door-,’ and you know, Skokie is particular because it has the most Holocaust survivors. And I said, ‘Just because they’re not next door Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t confront their hatred.’ And my father doesn’t want me to go, and I said to him that, i said, well, I think I said, ‘That’s not up to you, I’m going.’ And my dad’s greatness… he says, ‘You’re a schmuck,’ and he got his keys and said, ‘We’ll go down to Marquette Park.’ And it’s the first time that I decided to do something political on my own volition.”

“I apologize because that’s the first time I have seen my father,” said Emanuel a few moments later as he continued to break down. “I mean, I’ve seen still photos, but…”

“You’ve never seen this footage?” inquired Moynihan.

“If not, I’m really one of the great actors of all time,” quipped Emanuel. “No, I’ve never seen that footage.”

“My dad and I, to his credit, was just, ‘You’re a schmuck.’ And then he grabbed his keys because he wouldn’t let me go down alone,” mused Emanuel, who went on to call “schmuck” a “term of endearment” for his father.

“My dad, we knew loved us, but it came with, ‘Don’t be a schmuck,'” he reflected.

Watch above via The Fifth Column on YouTube.

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